Right Responses
Have you ever stopped to think about the fact that, if there were no valleys, the view from a mountaintop would not be so beautiful? If we never found ourselves in deep water, we would never learn to swim. If we never saw midnight, we would take sunrises for granted. And if life were all ease, there would never be a need to trust in God.
I sometimes think that it would be great to live life without the stresses and struggles that come but honestly it wouldn’t be much of a life. God created the hardships in life to make us more like Him and it’s the refining fire of trials which bring us to that place of surrender that allows for greater fellowship with Him. It’s our pride being broken which brings the humility that causes God to extend His grace to us. It’s fighting the enemy that turns us toward God and forces us to run into His arms. I don’t know about you but I wouldn’t elude those arms for anything.
When God created the world, He created us for pure, untainted fellowship with Himself but, when sin entered, He mercifully ordained the toils and strains of life to get us back to that place of fellowship. It’s amazing to me that, after Adam and Eve sinned, He didn’t go back to being with the angels and leave us to our own vices. Yet His love for us was so strong that I believe that was the day He knew He would have to become a human sacrifice so that we would not perish but have everlasting life. In spite of our selfishness and our lying, sinful nature, God loved us with a love that I cannot comprehend. How could someone be spat upon, kicked, beaten, marred beyond recognition and still say, “Father, forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing”?
That’s the kind of God we serve and that’s the God we are sinning against when we complain about the things that come our way. As we enter Easter weekend and we think about what Jesus did for us, let’s also think about what we’re doing for Him. Are we letting Him know by the way we live our lives and the words that come out of our mouths that we love Him and appreciate what He did for us, or are we crucifying Him all over again by letting Him know we really don’t care?
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